The Absa Cape Epic is an eight-day outdoor sports event. Weather is part of it. This year, due to the weather, the organisers extended the cut-off time of two stages (one of them twice), ended one stage early, started one stage early, delayed the start time of another stage and shortened the distance of two stages. But it wasn’t only the weather that affected the participants at this edition. Here’s why the Cape Epic is no longer the race it used to be.
By Sean Badenhorst
You don’t really want to be in Paarl when it’s extremely hot. The Cape Epic spent two and half days there in the heat this year. And you don’t really want to be at Lourensford when it rains. The Cape Epic spent two and a half days there with a high volume of rain this year. Bad luck really, but that had a significant impact on the race.
While it’s essential to arrive at the start of the Cape Epic ready for any weather, safety of the participants is always the priority and the organisers make decisions accordingly. They had to make several changes this year to best accommodate the extreme conditions and ensure rider safety.
The weather has always been a factor at the Cape Epic. We forget about the years when the weather was stable, but we definitely remember the years when there was extreme heat (2017 and 2025), extreme cold (2012), extreme rain (2023) and extreme wind (2012 and 2022). It’s those extreme conditions that challenge the riders even further and make them stronger humans for conquering within the daily cut-off times.
There are two other key features of the race these days that have had a significant impact on it. The addition of high volumes of singletrack and the increased number of entrants.
From 2015-2019, the five years prior to the cancelled edition in 2020, the average number of teams is 660. For the past three years 2023-2025, the average number of teams is 738. That’s an average of 156 more riders.
Now, accommodating 156 more riders on open roads and jeep track isn’t really too much of a challenge. But line up 156 riders wheel to wheel on their bikes on a piece of singletrack and you have a line of riders for over 300 metres – the length of three rugby fields. Get them to start riding and they will leave space between each other and your line of riders is now close to 500 metres long.
Add in some minor technical features and that line of riders at least doubles in distance taken up. Add in some climbs and more technical features and that line of 156 riders is occupying more than 1.5 kilometres of singletrack trail. That’s just 156 riders. Consider that there are 1500 riders in the race…
We saw this become an issue on Stage 2 in 2024 when riders that started in the later bunches had to stop racing and move off the trail to make way for the Elite men blasting back down the same trail! It was actually ridiculous and it shows that whoever planned the route didn’t consider this probability. Inexcusable really to not be aware of the average riding speeds of the leaders versus the late starters.
This year, there was more singletrack in the Cape Epic than ever before. Competent mountain bikers generally love riding well-made singletrack of which most of this was. But not all mountain bikers are comfortable on singletrack. Especially technical singletrack.
While the Paarl Trails singletrack isn’t super technical, it does include features that require some skill. Chuck in some steep ups and downs and that makes those features a bit more formidable. Add switchback turns – both up and down – into the mix and you have a real problem when trying to move 1 500 riders from start to finish within the cut-off time. And that’s before you factor in the extreme heat.
The venue is practical from a location perspective and has a truly impressive trails network. But it became clear in 2023 that while Lourensford’s trails are great to ride in the dry, they’re a significant challenge to ride when soaked. Having to push up singletrack climbs and also down singletrack descents, which is what the back half of the field is reduced to, makes for extremely slow going. It also drains the joy of mountain biking when being off your bike is the better option in order to make progress!
We’re told that land access is becoming increasingly difficult and that the modern Cape Epic routes need to make use of the established mountain bike trails parks more and more. On one hand, this is quite restrictive for the route designers. On the other hand, it’s cost-effective and logistically more friendly to have just three race villages for an eight-day race.
Cape Epic routes before 2020 had less singletrack, partly because there wasn’t as much as there is today. And partly because routes would cross a wider variety of land. Those editions regularly had multiple stages in excess of 100km in distance. As a result, congestion was seldom a major issue. No matter what level of mountain biker you are, congestion on a trail is at best, a rhythm crusher, at worst a flippen nightmare.
So, the weather is the weather. There has always been extreme weather at the Absa Cape Epic. Or at least the risk of it. Riders should prepare for all weather and the organisers make their decisions based on the what’s best for the safety of the riders. Nobody can control the weather.
However, what can be controlled is the route design and the number of riders in the race. It would be interesting to hear if the route team rode every kilometre of the 2025 route before finalising it. Not just bits of the route on different days, but did a route recce of the stages in full, in sequence. On regular mountain bikes (not eBikes). If they did, was it not obvious that there would be problems in Paarl without extreme heat?
Because of the shift in route choice, which includes more mountain bike trails parks, which have a high volume of singletrack and usually steeper gradients, the Cape Epic has changed from primarily an endurance challenge to very much an allround mountain biking challenge. The design of marathon mountain bikes has also changed in recent years to be able to handle steeper climbs and descents and technical features on trails.
From 2022, more use has been made of the purpose-built singletrack trails parks in the Western Cape by the Cape Epic. Comparing the past four editions, 2022-2025, to the previous five, 2016-2021, the average distance has dropped (647km vs 619km) and the average gradient increased (23.16m/km vs 25.77m/km).
In the five editions from 2015-2019, there were 16 stages of at least 100km in distance, while in the past five editions (2021-2025) there were six stages of 100km or more – and none in 2024 and 2025. There’s no doubt that the nature of the Absa Cape Epic has changed.
Unfortunately, the mindset of the average entrant hasn’t adjusted accordingly. A reasonably significant percentage of the Cape Epic field resides in the province of Gauteng, South Africa, which has a wide range of mountain bike trails parks. Only a few of them have steep gradients with loose surfaces and switchback turns. Who do you see riding them? Not many Cape Epic entrants, who prefer to focus more on endurance training rather than improving their skills and ability to ride steeper singletrack trails with confidence.
As with everything, change is inevitable. The Absa Cape Epic has changed from what it used to be. For some, especially riders who work on improving their steep-gradient climbing and technical riding skills, the changes are most welcome. For others, the changes make the race an even greater challenge than it already is…
Sean Badenhorst is the co-founder and editor of TREAD Media. He has covered every edition of the Absa Cape Epic from a media perspective and has ridden two editions of the race.
